New Delhi, Oct. 30: Thirty Jharkhand-cadre IPS officers including former top cops and dissenters who have written in support of Naxalites have been named in the list of defaulters for not declaring their immovable property assets for the year 2010.

The senior-most of the Jharkhand officers — some of whom have also quit or died — is K.C. Verma, the former chief of India’s international espionage agency, Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW). The 1971-batch officer’s name has been posted on the Union home ministry website along with 863 others.

During his tenure Verma was embroiled in a controversy over the purchase of a monitoring system for intercepting VSAT communications (satellite), which the defence intelligence agency had found unsuitable.

Currently, Verma is a member of a high-level task force on defence preparedness — led by former bureaucrat Naresh Chandra — which is expected to submit its report on January 14, 2012.

Verma was commissioned in the Bihar cadre before transferring to Jharkhand after its creation. He resigned as R&AW chief in December 2010, a month before he was due superannuation, to make way for Sanjeev Tripathi.

Home ministry sources indicated that officers who did not declare their assets might not get vigilance clearance for their promotion. On March 17, 2010, in a reply to the Jharkhand Legislative Assembly, the government said showcause notices would be sent to those who did not declare assets.

On August 17, 2010, former Governor M.O.H. Farook had made declaration of assets by public servants mandatory. A circular stated: “If any employee fails to declare assets, he or she will be liable for punishment of one year in jail.” So far, only reminders have been sent to errant officers.

According to rules, all officers have to declare their assets for each year by January 31 of the following year. Therefore, property returns from 2010 should have been filed by January 31, 2011. But in case of Verma, who resigned a month in advance, it is unclear as to what action can be taken.

However, ministry officials said the focus was on errant officers still in service. It includes Arvind Verma, who continues to find his name on the Jharkhand roll of 98 officers despite resigning from the Bihar cadre in 1995.

The 1978-batch officer took a sabbatical for research abroad in 1990. In 1995, he returned to Bihar but went back after being asked to join as SP, though his batchmates had been elevated to DIGs. Currently an associate professor in the department of criminal justice of Indiana University, US. Verma completed his PhD from Simon Fraser University, Canada, in 1996.

In an email reply to The Telegraph, he wrote that since his resignation he had been writing to Bihar and later to Jharkhand to scrap his name from the list. He had not drawn salary since 1992, when he extended his study leave, and his pension and gratuity were still with the exchequer, he added. “Jharkhand says I never joined their cadre and Bihar of course takes the argument that my services have been shifted to Jharkhand… I have struggled in vain to get my name removed from the list all these years but it is seems getting out of IPS is far more difficult than getting in!” he wrote.

Verma isn’t alone. His Bihar-cadre comrade Ajit Joy of the 1992-batch quit in 2004 to practice in the Supreme Court. He later joined the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, where he is country manager, Indonesia.

Joy finds mention on the Bihar cadre’s list of defaulters for 2010. His resignation has not been accepted by the Bihar government, which initiated a probe against him last year for accepting other assignments while remaining a government employee.

Verma and Joy have interesting similarities. Both have written obituaries of Naxalite leaders. In an article titled “To Mahendra Singh, a salute” on bihartimes.in in 2006 — a year after the CPI(ML) Liberation MLA’s assassination — Joy called Singh a “revolutionary leader”.

He wrote: “For the police, a nightmare; for the establishment, a terror; but for the people, a messiah…for revolutionaries like him, opposing the entrenched interests and arrogance of the state was a mission.”

Verma’s online comments on Joy’s article are even more “revolutionary”.

He wrote: “There was a time when anyone even enforcing the existing laws to free bonded labour, ensure payment of minimum wages or remove discrimination based upon caste and gender was denounced by the establishment and hounded… more and more are having the courage to break out of the existing norms and culture of the organisation and think for themselves.”

Verma also wrote an obituary of Majdoor Kisan Sangharsh Samiti (MKSS) leader Vinayan in this paper in 2006. “One of the most remarkable episodes in the history of state violence and oppression in post independence India centred on Vinayan and the MKSS. In 1985 the police opened fire on a peaceful and unarmed MKSS meeting in Arwal killing nearly a 100 people.”

Other senior officers on the list of defaulters include former Jharkhand DGP Neyaz Ahmed. He retired in February 2011 and was made chairman of the Jharkhand Staff Selection in May. He quit in July claiming he felt suffocated for want of work, adequate staff and infrastructure.

IGP P.S. Natrajan, who was suspended in 2005 for allegedly molesting a tribal girl, is also on the list. He was reinstated by the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) on May 22, only to be suspended a day later as a departmental inquiry was pending.

Among others on the list are additional DGP Jagdish Raj, who died of Hepatitis B in March in Chandigarh, ADG (CID) Asha Sinha and IG of the vigilance cell of JSEB Nirmal Choudhary.

Choudhary was jailed for a fortnight in May for ordering her guards to assault a CAT judge in Ranchi in 2008.

The home ministry has revealed the lists as part of a countrywide transparency drive. Its hope is that “naming and shaming” would work, as action against defaulters has never been forthcoming. Andhra Pradesh has performed the best with only seven of its 185 officers on the list. Bihar and UP top the list of defaulters with 92 each.

Home ministry figures show that as on January 1, 2011, the country has 3,393 IPS officers against a sanctioned strength of 4,720.

The home ministry has asked for details of immovable properties inherited, owned, acquired and held in accordance with Rule 16 of the All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968, which mandates the same.